#83: Christmas Peppermint Chocolate Cupcakes

In September of 2009, I started a cupcake adventure. If you haven't read about it yet, you can do so here. ***

((I know this is a Christmas post and it's February. I also know some people who just took down their Christmas tree, so at least I'm not that far behind...))

22single

The first step in making Christmas Peppermint Chocolate Cupcakes is to steep 4 bags of Peppermint tea in hot water for several minutes.

01tea

While the tea was 'brewing', I mixed together the chocolate chips, butter, and sugar.

02dry

I also got my Christmasy cupcake papers ready to be filled.

03papers

Then, I poured the hot tea over the chocolate chip mixture (it made the weirdest bubbles!)

04steep

The mixture was then stirred together until everything was nice and soupy.

05melted

The chocolate/butter/tea mix was then added to the dry ingredients to make the chocolate batter.

06batter

Meanwhile, I got the egg whites whipping in the mixer.

07beatwhites

From there, they were folded into the liquid chocolate.

08beatwhites

Few things are as potent as this stuff right here:

09pep

But it's sooooo good when you add it to a bowl of cream cheese icing.

10creamch

Since the icing called for crushed up candy canes, I grabbed a dozen...

11canes

and experimented with my food processor (note: not the best method--makes them more like dust than nice, yummy chunks.)

12process

So, I switched to the old stand-by method: Ziplock bag and a rolling pin!

13beating

Mmm...peppermint cream cheese icing with candy cane chunks.

14addpep

LOOK at that!

15frosting

So...I should've remembered to divide the batter out to more cups than the recipe called for. If I had, I wouldn't have experienced this overflow:

16overflow

But...moving on! I just gently peeled away the part that overflowed. The cupcakes looked a little raw around the edges, but since I wasn't selling these, their 'look' didn't matter much.

17torn

And once a cupcake is iced, who really cares anyway, right?!

18duo

19single

As a group, they looked so tempting.

20set

Individually, they were pretty darn tempting, too. :)

21bite

Yummy!!

Venetian Blind Book

#84: Christmas Fruit Cupcakes with White Fondant

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